Aiwa CS 65
The Aiwa CS 65 is a portable FM/AM stereo radio-cassette recorder. It also shows up as the CS-65X, particularly in Japanese-market listings. Russian sales listings call it a радиокассетник, and that is where most of the surviving documentation is. The record on this model is thin. It comes almost entirely from secondary-market listings and forum posts, not period literature or service documentation. The sources agree on a few things. It was sold as a Japanese-market unit (the "X" suffix is common on Aiwa's domestic models), and it was compact. One Moscow listing calls it the youngest and most compact model in Aiwa's "top X series," though that lineage claim is single-source.
No formal specifications survive in the research. There is no power output, frequency response or tape transport detail. The only dimensions come from a Yahoo Japan auction listing: approximately 45 cm wide, 27 cm tall and 10.5 cm deep. The modification trail is well documented. Nearly every surviving unit in Russian hands has been converted from the Japanese 100V supply to 220V (transformer replacement). The tuner has also been retuned from the Japanese FM band to the 87-108 MHz range. A shizaudio.ru forum post describes exactly this work, along with belt replacement and regulator cleaning. One Taiwan listing even shows a unit with a Bluetooth 5.0 module retrofitted inside.
Reception commentary is limited to seller descriptions: "excellently sounding," "fully working." Prices in Russian classifieds ranged from 5,200 rubles (Voronezh, 2019) to 12,500 rubles (Krasnodar, 2021), with one Moscow bundle listing at 24,999 rubles. A Yahoo Japan auction unit was listed as junk/parts. At least one seller on Avito offers replacement belts and pinch rollers made from Japanese Kuraray elastomer. Production years, original price and any formal review coverage remain undocumented.
Known specs
- Type: FM/AM stereo radio-cassette recorder (boombox)
- Dimensions: approx. 45 × 27 × 10.5 cm (W×H×D)
- Market: Japan (100V supply, Japanese FM band as built)
- Common modifications: 220V transformer swap, FM retune to 87–108 MHz
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